Frivolous spending and space

I have been on a campaign since I've been in grad school. My campaign is simply to throw away all the unnecessary crap I've accumulated in my life and actually use the things that I bought because I thought they'd be useful.

Like this:

Looks like a pretty cool purchase, right? (In case you don't know what it is, it's used to help drain water when you're washing rice.) If I don't use it, it's useless and a waste of space. So that's been my test. If I don't use it or forget I have it, I don't need it and I donate it. It's actually somewhat of a process but I am also on a budget so that helps frame my mindset when thinking about whether or not to throw something out (because I'd rather not have to purchase something I already have). And after watching a documentary on plastic waste, I've been trying to minimize frivolous throwing out too (which is why many things either go to recycling or donation piles).

So I guess all of this throwing out and recycling kind of got me thinking, of all the things we buy, how much of it is something we need? For example, I realized that I may not have everything that I want in terms of having a full wardrobe (I'm talking basics - I'm still missing some stuff, imo) but I have a ton of clothes. I don't wear half of them. So I'm getting rid of things that I don't really wear, things that don't really look good on me, things that have a high probably of wardrobe malfunctions, things that are high maintenance, etc. And because I'm in throw-everything-out-I-don't-need-anything mode, I've also come to realize that one can really make do with what one has.

For example, my blender:

It's ancient! The one pictured above is a 5-speed because I couldn't find my 3-speed one. I'm guessing it's too old for even the Internet to have pictures of. Hahahaha

But it works, I love that's it's old, and I don't need anything else. It's also super easy to clean (which is kind of a big deal for me). All those stupid fancy shmancy mixer machine crap takes like 50 years to clean and I'd rather be reading or playing Tetris than dealing with the maintenance of those things.

I mean, in the end, humans really don't need all that much to survive. Yes, there are things that make life easier (like washing machines), and there are things that make life more complicated in incredibly unnecessary ways (like espresso machines that require daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning/maintenance). I suppose I'm going through this phase where I'm trying to simplify a lot of things and I've come to realize that things are one of the ways I unnecessarily complicate my life. Ugh. I seriously have so much crap.

So that brings me to my other point. I think because my pea-sized apartment is overflowing with things I need to sort, it also has made me face again the sheer amount of waste I've collected. Some of it may be important, but a lot of it probably isn't. So much space is wasted on things that a person doesn't use. More money is spent on the storage of these these things... For what purpose? If there is none, doesn't it makes sense to get rid of it all?

Sifting through all my stuff is a pain, but it helps remind me that I really don't need all that much to be happy (a space to call my own, Internet, my books, and a kitchen). And I'm really hoping that the spending habits that I'm slowly acquiring carry over when I actually start making money because shopping for things and having too many things is a pain in the butt. Simplicity is good, imo.